Ochal resigns to probally a better job

Aviation official resigns amid power struggle

By: Lorene Yue Aug. 08, 2008

(Crain's) — Embattled city Aviation Department official David Ochal resigned Friday, just days after drawing public criticism for allegedly using clout to provide electricity to his home when his Northwest Side neighborhood lost power in Monday night’s storm.

The Department of Aviation issued a news release stating that Mr. Ochal, who was first deputy commissioner, has left the department after eight years.

Mr. Ochal was the subject of a Chicago Tribune column by John Kass, who claimed he used his position to get Commonwealth Edison Co. to deliver a power generator to his home on Wednesday while his neighbors were still in the dark.

Mr. Ochal was also scrutinized in 2000 for having a backyard pool installed without obtaining proper city permits. Mayor Richard M. Daley's administration claimed Mr. Ochal did no wrong.

Former alderman confesses corruption

(AP) — A 17-year veteran of Chicago's City Council has pleaded guilty to taking payoff money and cheating on her taxes.

Former Alderman Arenda Troutman acknowledged Wednesday that she'd taken money for helping real estate developers in her South Side ward.

She pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax fraud charges. Eleven other counts were dropped in exchange for her plea.

U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo set December 3rd for sentencing the 50-year-old Troutman, who lost her re-election bid last year after the charges became public.

Defense attorney Sam Adam Junior says other than the payoffs, Troutman had "an impeccable record" of working her way up after a poverty-stricken childhood "in the coal fields of West Virginia."

Another Political hack gone

Emergency director Ruiz moved to tech job

March 28, 2008

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BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

The $162,912-a-year executive director of Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications was kicked upstairs Friday after only nine months on the job amid a blitzkrieg of complaints from disgruntled underlings.

Tony Ruiz, a former lineman for the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation, will now serve as the city's chief technology operations officer overseeing GPS, electronic inventory and biometric systems.

The surprise reassignment comes at a time when 911 center employees have been complaining privately to the Chicago Sun-Times about everything from broken chairs, job application tampering and promotions irregularities to excessive overtime and sexual harassment by 911 supervisors.

Morale reportedly took a further nosedive when Ruiz handed out uneven punishment to a pair of 911 dispatchers accused of failing to notify police about a brawl at a Southwest Side Park last summer. And underlings accused Ruiz of “giving” Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th) a $4,000 digital radio so she could monitor snow removal and emergency operations in her ward.

The radio was returned after the Chicago Sun-Times started asking questions.

Ruiz could not be reached for comment about his reassignment.

Hispanic aldermen who have complained about a shortage of Hispanics in the mayor's cabinet were taken aback by the reassignment to an obscure job.

Ruiz will be replaced on a temporary basis by 911 center veteran and technology expert Jim Argiropoulos.

“It bothers the community that we're putting aside talented [Hispanic] people without giving a good explanation. I don't know why he would take on that role when we need him as an individual who can handle so many emergencies we have at the 911 center,” said Ald. George Cardenas (12th).

The shake-up was announced in a press release distributed Friday, when bad news is traditionally buried. In it, Daley tried to put the best face on the cabinet shuffle.

“As part of our commitment to better manage government and protect taxpayers, we continue to identify ways to incorporate management efficiencies into our citywide operations. Having a point-person to coordinate operational uniformity across all departments will help us improve our processes and identify further economies of scale,” the mayor said.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported last month that a pair of police communications operators at the 911 center had raked in $114,591 and $113,136 in overtime last year — double their annual salaries — raising renewed questions about staffing levels that were supposed to be resolved two years ago.

As for the other complaints, OEMC spokesperson Jennifer Martinez said the chairs are being replaced, the radio has been returned and overtime is being reduced. She flatly denied the allegations about hiring and promotions irregularities and alleged sexual harassment.

Business as usual in Chicago

Contract swindler James Duff is banned from Chicago business for only 3 years

Imprisoned businessman with Daley ties will be eligible to bid for city work before his prison term is up

By Todd Lighty and Laurie Cohen |Tribune reporters

12:07 AM CDT, March 20, 2008

Mayor Richard Daley's administration has banned the head of Windy City Maintenance and two others convicted of contract fraud from doing business with the city for three years, despite a recommendation from the inspector general that they never be allowed to do work for City Hall again.

James Duff, who cheated the city and insurance companies out of millions of dollars, should be subject to the stiffest penalty outlined in policies drawn up in 2005 following a series of contracting scandals, Inspector General David Hoffman said Wednesday.

Duff, a member of a mob-connected family with strong ties to the mayor, became the face of contracting fraud in Daley's administration after creating phony minority-owned and woman-owned businesses to get city work.

A federal prosecutor once called Duff "the epitome of greed" and a city official previously gave assurances that City Hall had no interest in ever again doing business with Duff-related companies.

After Duff was sent to prison in 2005 for racketeering and fraud, Hoffman recommended in late 2006 that Duff and two co-defendants, William Stratton and Terrence Dolan, receive lifetime bans.

City bans plastic bags- feel good politics

• Tiny plastic bags used to sell small quantities of heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and other drugs would be banned in Chicago, under a crackdown advanced today by a City Council committee.

  Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) persuaded the Health Committee to ban possession of “self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in either height or width,” after picking up 15 of the bags on a recent Sunday afternoon stroll through a West Side park.

The city is for sale

Lets sell the whole city!

• Motorists would pay more to park at Chicago’s 36,161 metered spaces — and even higher prices during peak periods in congested areas — in exchange for more cashless payment and pay-by-phone options, under a privatization plan advanced Friday.

  Buoyed by the $2.4 billion gravy train of revenue generated by privatizing the Chicago Skyway and downtown parking garages and the prospect of an even bigger windfall at Midway Airport, Mayor Daley on Friday moved to unload yet another city asset: Chicago parking meters.

  City Hall and the Chicago Park District issued a “request for qualifications” from firms interested in operating what would be the nation’s “first major publicly-owned parking meter operation.”